All stories by Michael Dale on BroadwayStars

Sunday, March 16, 2025

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Last Call" - 3/16/25 by Michael Dale

"I make something where there was nothing," says the world famous American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein to the equally world famous Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan in Pete…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 07:17PM
Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "The Irrepressible Magic of the Tropics" - 3/4/25 by Michael Dale

If you stay still for a moment in the fictional town serving as the setting for Julián Mesri's mystical adventure, The Irrepressible Magic of the Tropics, you may hear the soothing sound of…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 05:10PM
Thursday, February 13, 2025

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "B*tchcraft" - 2/13/25 by Michael Dale

"This is the part of my story I really don't want to talk about," says rebelliously queer and creatively anti-patriarchal music artist Bitch about two-thirds into her funny, touching, and ag…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 10:27AM
Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Sheltered" - 1/29/25 by Michael Dale

When you walk into the cell theatre for a performance of Cate Wiley's exploration of the day to day lives of women in America experiencing homelessness, Sheltered, and I thoroughly recommend…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 07:43PM
Monday, January 20, 2025

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "The She-Wolves" - 1/10/25 by Michael Dale

When the Duke of York refers to Queen Margaret of Anjou as the She-Wolf of France in William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part III, it isn't exactly a compliment. "How ill-beseeming is it in thy …

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 07:47PM
Sunday, December 15, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Racecar Racecar Racecar" - 12/15/24 by Michael Dale

The first somewhat off-putting moment playwright Kallan Dana sprinkles into her engaging mixture of naturalism, surrealism, and buddy story titled Racecar Racecar Racecar arrives less than t…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 07:17PM
Saturday, November 16, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves" - 11/16/24 by Michael Dale

When New Jersey's St. William Academy All Girls' Catholic School holds auditions for Romeo and Juliet, 17-year-old Ellie and her best friend Britt just assume they'll be cast in the title ro…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 03:53PM
Monday, October 28, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Golem Owned a Tropical Smoothie" - 10/28/24 by Michael Dale

As Anton Chekhov wrote, if the title song of a musical is interrupted with a legal disclaimer regarding the use of copyrighted material, the first act had better end with a cease and desist …

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 10:52AM
Thursday, October 10, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "I'm Going to Eat You Alive" - 10/10/24 by Michael Dale

"Content warning for like, everything. Really sorry. This play's really gross," advises playwright Riley Elton McCarthy in the press script provided to reviewers of their psychological Grand…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:36PM
Friday, May 31, 2019

BWW Review: PURE YANNI Takes Up Residence at The Lunt-Fontanne by Michael Dale

'This is an unscripted show. I have no idea what I'm going to do,' the internationally acclaimed composer and pianist Yanni tells his audience at the outset of his debut Broadway performance.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:54AM
Thursday, May 30, 2019

BWW Review: Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon Make Rapturous Music in Terrence McNally's FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE by Michael Dale

'I guess I want you to play the most beautiful music ever written and dedicate it to us,' a hopeful romantic requests of the radio station he's phoned from his date's apartment.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:48PM
Friday, May 24, 2019

BWW Review: Based on Carl Reiner's Classic, Hilarious ENTER LAUGHING, THE MUSICAL Returns To The York by Michael Dale

Though the 1976 musical SO LONG, 174th STREET didn't even last a fortnight on Broadway, it wouldn't be surprising to see the York Theater Company's completely delightful revised version, ENT…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:42AM
Tuesday, May 21, 2019

BWW Review: Aziza Barnes' Fast and Furiously Funny BLKS Follows Three Friends on a Crazy Night by Michael Dale

There's a scene in poet-turned-playwright Aziza Barnes' fast and furiously funny debut stage piece, BLKS, where the main characters, a trio of black Brooklyn women in their 20s 'out on a mis…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:12AM
Saturday, May 18, 2019

BWW Review: Brenda Pressley Ponders Infidelity and Classism in Chisa Hutchinson's PROOF OF LOVE by Michael Dale

Playwright Chisa Hutchinson, describes Constance Daley, the character who voices her solo play, Proof of Love, as 'close as you can get to a WASP while being black.'

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:42PM
Wednesday, May 15, 2019

BWW Review: Well-Off Predators Feast On The Poor in Sam Shepard's CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS by Michael Dale

Latecomers to director Terry Kinney's finely-acted Signature Theatre revival of Sam Shepard's 1977 dysfunctional family drama, Curse of the Starving Class, will miss the showstopping bit of …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 12:33AM
Monday, May 13, 2019

BWW Review: Cirque du Soleil's Glorious New Showpiece LUZIA: A WAKING DREAM OF MEXICO by Michael Dale

Though the world-famous 35-year-old Montreal-based entertainment troupe Cirque du Soleil has never been known for making political statements with their extravaganzas of culture and athletic…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:18AM
Friday, May 10, 2019

BWW Review: Encores! Has Michael Urie and Kevin Chamberlin As A Pair of Clowning Con Men in HIGH BUTTON SHOES by Michael Dale

That crazy cacophony of choreographic chaos that careens across the City Center stage shortly after the commencement of Act II is the main reason for Encores to bring back the smash hit 1947…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:33AM
Tuesday, May 7, 2019

BWW Review: Isabella Rossellini's LINK LINK CIRCUS Delves Into The Minds of Animals by Michael Dale

Don't let the abundance of cuteness fool you. Isabella Rossellini's LINK LINK CIRCUS is one of the brainiest shows in town.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:18AM

BWW Review: Director Laurie Woolery Casts Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST With An Eye Toward Establishing a Non-Patriarchal Paradise by Michael Dale

Though Shakespeare's The Tempest commences with a spectacular act of revenge, director Laurie Woolery stresses in her program notes for Mobile Unit's thoroughly enrapturing new production he…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:42AM
Sunday, May 5, 2019

BWW Review: Halley Feiffer Finds Symbolism In Her Real-Life Ailment With THE PAIN OF MY BELLIGERENCE by Michael Dale

If you're like this male theatre critic, you'll spend the first twenty minutes or so of Halley Feiffer's The Pain of My Belligerence wondering why the woman at the center of the story is put…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:12PM
Friday, April 26, 2019

BWW Review: Alex Brightman Is Uproariously Subversive in Gothic Musical Comedy Gem BEETLEJUICE by Michael Dale

'Holy crap A ballad already', sneers the leading man as he interrupts the opening song of his starring vehicle a funeral dirge sung by his co-star, backed by a chorus of mourners.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:21AM
Thursday, April 25, 2019

BWW Review: James Graham's Wildly Raucous INK Chronicles Rupert Murdoch's Rise To Tabloid Journalism Infamy by Michael Dale

Long before the term clickbait entered into pop culture infamy, Chief Editor Larry Lamb of the Fleet Street tabloid The Sun was offering his staff a bonus every time the eye-catching words '…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:49AM
Wednesday, April 24, 2019

BWW Review: Robert Horn, David Yazbek's Hilarious Take On TOOTSIE Addresses Contemporary Gender Issues by Michael Dale

Following in the footsteps of NETWORK and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Robert Horn book and David Yazbek's score musical comedy Tootsie continues this Broadway season's welcome trend of adapting c…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:52AM
Tuesday, April 23, 2019

BWW Review: Tracy Letts and Annette Bening in Arthur Miller's Drama of Evolving American Dreams, ALL MY SONS by Michael Dale

While many scoff at Broadway's habit of bringing back so many American classics from decades ago, a well-timed revival of an early work by one of our great masters might reveal a bit about h…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:32AM
Monday, April 22, 2019

BWW Review: Tim Blake Nelson's SOCRATES Honors The Philosopher Condemned For Encouraging Free Thought by Michael Dale

'Would you rule justly' the ancient Greek philosopher who serves as title character of Tim Blake Nelson's drama Socrates asks a fellow citizen who claims he would do a better job than the cu…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:13AM
Sunday, April 21, 2019

BWW Review: Nathan Lane, Kristine Nielson and Julie White are Bloody Brilliant in Taylor Mac's Absurdist GARY: A SEQUEL TO TITUS ANDRONICUS by Michael Dale

Don't let the title scare you. All you need to know about Shakespeare's infamously bloody revenge tragedy before laughing yourself silly at Taylor Mac's Gary A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, is…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:01PM
Friday, April 19, 2019

BWW Review: Laurie Metcalf, John Lithgow Debate The Art of Getting Elected in Lucas Hnath's Political Fan Fiction HILLARY AND CLINTON by Michael Dale

'If the universe is infinite,' Laurie Metcalf, playing Laurie Metcalf, explains to the audience at the outset of Lucas Hnath's sharp and funny bit of political fan fiction, Hillary and Clint…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:12AM
Thursday, April 18, 2019

BWW Review: New Orleans Gets Mythological in Anaïs Mitchell's Exhilarating Bluesy Folk Opera HADESTOWN by Michael Dale

With a stage career spanning half a century that includes dozens of notable performances in New York alone, Andre De Shields knows a thing or two about seducing an audience. And that's exact…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:19AM
Wednesday, April 17, 2019

BWW Review: Company XIV's Sumptuous New Cavalcade, QUEEN OF HEARTS by Michael Dale

For over a dozen years, the brilliant directorchoreographer Austin McCormick and the intriguing troupe of artists he's gathered to create and expand Company XIV have been luring audiences to…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:48AM

BWW Review: Adam Driver and Keri Russell Star in Lanford Wilson's Drama of Sex and Grieving, BURN THIS by Michael Dale

The phrase 'toxic masculinity' wasn't exactly in the vernacular in 1987, when Circle Rep's buzz-producing run of Lanford Wilson's Burn This moved uptown to Broadway. So perhaps coked-up, hom…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:42AM
Tuesday, April 16, 2019

BWW Review: Brian d'Arcy James, Shuler Hensley Lead New Arrivals To Jez Butterworth's THE FERRYMAN by Michael Dale

When director Sam Mendes' beautifully realized production of Jez Butterworth's Olivier-winning drama The Ferryman opened on Broadway last October, leading man Paddy Considine and several oth…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:32AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Nov 17, 2024: Elf - Marquis Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre